Minimal Pair List Vowels 8 and 17, /ʊ/ versus / aʊ / 14 pairs

The /ʊ/ vowel is usually spelled <oo>, <u>, and <oul> in could . The / aʊ / diphthong is spelled <ou> or <ow>. The computer also found the pairs luring/louring and tour/tower , but I have taken them out since the / ʊə / diphthong in tour and luring is best treated as a distinct phoneme, and some speakers would use a palatal glide in luring in any case.

This is a contrast between a short vowel and a diphthong, fairly close in their starting positions in the mouth. There is some likelihood of confusion though not associated with any one group of learners.

The density figure is 0.71%. The set makes 6 semantic contrasts giving a loading of 42.9%.

could cowed
full foul 
  fuller fouler 
  fullest foulest 
  fullness foulness 
  fully foully 
fuller fowler
  fullers fowlers 
poorhouse powerhouse
  poorhouses powerhouses
put pout 
  puts pouts
putsch pouch
  putsches pouches 

John Higgins

John Higgins retired in 2000, having spent the bulk of his career as a British Council English Language Officer working in Thailand, Turkey, Egypt and Yugoslavia and the last fifteen years in lectureships at Bristol University and then running an M.Sc. programme at Stirling University. His main field was EFL, with a special interest in CALL (computer-assisted language learning) in which, together with Tim Johns of Birmingham, he was responsible for important developments in methods and materials. His publications include A Guide to Language Laboratory Material Writing, Universitetesforlaget, 1969, Computers and Language Learning, Collins, 1984, Language Learners and Computers, Longman, 1988, and Computers in English Language Learning, Intellect Press, 1992, together with numerous papers, reviews and pieces of software. He maintains a web page on minimal pairs and homographs for teachers of English pronunciation skills.